(Note: You are reading the progress from a project that began in August of 2014. This information in this post was originally dated from October to December of 2016.)
Rear Glass, Paint Booth, and Clear Coat
My plan was to spend a few minutes removing the rear glass. I had stripped up to the edges of the stainless trim as not to scuff them up so to get the rest of the metal there and underneath of the seal (windshield and the doors/quarter windows will come next) the glass and SS trim needed to be removed. Right. A few minutes. Jessup don't kid yourself. On with the "show" ... First off, I say to myself, "Jessup, you better get out the manual and read up just to check it out, there may be a hidden clip or screw or retainer that you can't see."
Now mind you, I have installed and removed the windshield 4-5 times and was very familiar with that and felt pretty confident about the rear glass. I read up on the pages in the manual. Good, got it, ready to go. Now out to the garage to remove the rear glass.
The seal was still on the soft side, but you could also see places where it had split or come apart and just needed to be replaced.
I used the tool above to pry the edge of the seal along the length of the sheet metal edges and tried to push the glass out like the manual says to do. I spent over an hour trying to nudge, push, tug, shove, cajole, tap, move, slide, pry, coax, cut, pull this 62 year old installation of rear glass from FoMoCo. I decided to cut the seal on the inside of the car...
and it finally started to budge. How, I have no idea. For some reason it seemed that the passenger side was glued in heavily. Let me just say that through all of this frustration I was glad of one thing... I did not gorilla the thing out. If I had done so, I would have surely cracked the glass. Look what was hiding under the side trim on the passenger side.
Thank you Ford, no help there lol.
I thought there would be one on the driver's side but there wasn't. It all came out fine but I am concerned about how to that screw back in there and then put that side trim over the screw after everything is fitted. How will that work?
(a few weeks later...)
The last month has been very busy but hopefully it is showing signs of letting up a bit as we head into the new year soon. I did get around to start putting up a paint booth - pvc and plastic with filtering/ventilation - and have finished prepping the fenders. I am pretty happy with their look and feel after all the blocking and fine prepping. The scissor stands I have been using for the fenders are lightweight and versatile, just not a good fit for actually spraying. I was able to hit the fenders with primer alright but it took some finagling.
So... it was time to consider what to hang the fenders now that we need to spray the SSU. Enter the versatile 2x4!
I built them on a scissor principle, but much higher. The top sits about 55" off the floor level. These were built so I could have access to both sides, tall enough to be able to shoot the bottom of the fender comfortably, and with a dog leg attached so that the bottom portion of the fender will "stick out" a bit for easier access. They are 40" wide and are obviously built for 55/56 fenders. The good thing is they fold up just about as flat as 4" give or take. For those of you concerned about the dust... YES, I did wipe down the wood and prime the stands once they were all bolted together and functional.
I have seen some good stands manufactured by different companies, but I really didn't want to spend the dough because I don't do this full time and I am not sure how many cars i will ever do in my lifetime. Any more DIY on fenders, hood, trunk lid, doors??? your pics would give us good ideas if you have some available.
And now for the paint booth - you can see below that I went with a PVC frame up and 5 mil plastic. A box fan to bring air in and a box fan to exhaust the air. The "air replacement" and fume containment was excellent... until the exhaust fan filter clogged up - then it was a blow out as the overspray found its way out every nook and cranny under the plastic.
And now for the first use!
The paint is an Eastwood SSU color called Pinup Red. The gun I used was a Devilbiss FLG670, with a twin stage 5 HP compressor that has plenty of flow with those High Flow fittings. CFM was not a problem. As a matter of fact, the overspray seemed to be quite a bit much when compared to my cheapie HVLP guns I have. The flow, atomization, and ultimately the finish of what I sprayed was excellent. I am very happy with it, but I am confused at all of the overspray. My Devilbiss gauge showed 23 psi at the gun, and I had the nice cigar shape spray test pattern from the gun. The tip is a 1.5, and the material knob on the gun was wide open. The paint was mixed according to the manufacturer's recommendations. I wonder if the overspray problem is just something I need to live with or if I need to just replace filters more often?
I was no closer than 6 inches and no farther away from 8. The paint atomized extremely well, maybe too well as it laid down a fine mist all over the fender. I have gone back and looked at some videos of guys using this exact gun and what I am seeing is fellas turning down the PSI more at the gun - I sprayed at 23 psi which is what Devilbiss recommends, but the lowest I have seen for someone shooting base was at 15 psi on that Devilbiss regulator/gauge combo. I think I am going to fool with that a little more next and spend some more time on my test pattern before I shoot - I guess I will try to get the gun to be right above "orange peel" stage?
If you want a good laugh, you should have seen my wife's reaction when she came in there and saw the "cloud"! She said, "Hey, you know you got a problem right? This ain't working too well." The cleanup wasn't too bad but it sure did seem like a lot more overspray than what I am used to. Who knows, maybe for this gun that is what it takes for good atomization.
Sprayed the final parts that needed to be red in color - the body + doors still need red of course. The "paint booth" really worked well but it did not see that much in overspray. I used a HF detail gun –
It has a .6 tip, and the SSU was mixed 3:1 with a splash of reducer. I turned the PSI down to 22 or so and the paint atomized nicely and flowed well out of the gun. The gun did not leak at all or have any issues - the gun parts are a little difficult to clean but they came out nice with Urethane Reducer used as a solvent to remove the residue. I think I will end up painting the door jams and the hood channel with this gun.
And I had some clear coat delivered just today. The plan is to take on the panels and parts with 800 grit paper before clear coating with a 1.3 tip.
Now that I have purchased all of the SSU paint I needed and discovered that clear could be shot over the SSU with no issues, I am going to test out the idea on the small parts I just painted. One of my old buddies, who I respect very well and has loads of experience with the 15 or so cars he has done in his lifetime, recommended I go this route. Who knows, maybe I should have just bought a base coat/clear coat system and went with that. Not having ever shot clear, and to be honest, being a novice with shooting paint in general but willing to learn and take the time to prepare everything, I had originally planned on staying away from clear. The parts and fenders have 3 medium coats of SSU. Any dust particles, or lint, can be sanded out pretty easily and then clear applied I am told by both manufacturers of the SSU and the Clear Coat I purchased. I am not so sure I am going to be able to spray anything 100% perfect on any panel or part I spray.
Check out this clear coat! pretty happy with first time results - these have not been sanded or buffed yet. I do have some small places to take care of but they won't show up on camera. The weird thing is that my mom and dad are in town and his 2014 Ford Truck has what looks to be a very close, or even spot on, color match to what I am spraying lol. I am using an Eastwood SSU called Pinup Red for color in this two tone job. Crazy. I guess I never realized it, but the Ford truck has more orange peel than my paint job on these headlight hoods. I hear people talk about factory orange peel but never considered it. Crazier.
